Loretta M. Simpson, a homemaker and longtime Armagh Village resident, died of heart failure Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 100.
Loretta Mansfield was born and raised in Washington. She was a 1926 graduate of the Academy of the Holy Cross, which was then located on Upton Street N.W. in Washington.
Until the birth of her son in 1944, she was an office worker for the federal government. In 1942, she married Arthur L. Simpson, and the couple settled into Armagh Village in 1953.
Mrs. Simpson, who lived in the North Baltimore neighborhood until moving to the Mercy Ridge retirement community in Timonium in 2001, was a member of the Women's Civic League.
She participated for years in the organization's annual Flower Mart, held each spring in Mount Vernon. She also was a member of the league's 9 Front Street Committee. In 1979, the committee opened the restored home of Mayor Thorowgood Smith, on Front Street near the Shot Tower. Mr. Smith was mayor from 1804 to 1808. Mrs. Simpson was also a longtime member of the Towson Rotary Club's Inner Wheel.
Mrs. Simpson enjoyed canning and was known for her homemade tomato juice, said her daughter, Anne Lynn King of Jarrettsville.
Her daughter attributed her mother's longevity to maintaining an "upbeat attitude" throughout her life.
"She was always careful in what she ate, cut fat off meat before it became fashionable, and didn't smoke," Mrs. King said, adding, "She also liked a J&B; scotch every night."
Her husband, a general marketing supervisor for the old Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., died in 2001.
She was a communicant of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Towson.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the chapel at Stella Maris Hospice, 2300 Dulaney Valley Road, Timonium.
Also surviving are a son, William M. Simpson of Danville, Ky.; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com